6
University Daily Kansan
Closer Look
Tuesday, Oct. 22, 1985
STEP BY STEP
Greg Adams; a certified prosthetist and the technician for the prosthetics program at the University
of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan.
checks the adjustments on the artificial limb of Alta
Ockerman. Parsons, before attaching it to her leg.
Tears of joy came to Alta Ockerman after walking, with the help of Med Center staff members, for the first time in almost 18 months.
Story by Stefani Day Photos by Alan Hagman
Adams makes adjustments to ensure that the angle of the foot is correct for Ockerman.
KANSAS CITY. Kan —
“Christmas came early this year.”
David Ockerman, a Parsons
minister, said last week as he watch-
take her first labored
steps after being wheelchair-bound
for 1½ years.
With the help of an artificial leg and two strong parallel bars at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Alta Ockerman, whose left leg was amputated a few inches below the knee, stood and walked on two legs.
"My goal is to stand up with dignity," Alta Ockerman said. "I want to stand up and walk to church."
Two prosthetists at the Med Center are helping Ockerman and others
Paul Trautman, certified prosthetist and orthotist, said an average of one patient a week had received an artificial limb since the prostheties program at the Med Center was organized in July.
A prosthetist is a specialist in artifical body parts and an orthotist makes and fits those parts.
Most amputations are due to diseases of the blood vessels and occur in older patients. Trautman said:
“These are older people with other health care problems,” he said. “The amputation may be the least of their troubles. Sometimes the amputated leg is going to be the strong one.”
Such is the case with Ockerman, who has suffered from arthritis for 40 years.
Although her leg wasn't amputated until March, she was confined to a wheelchair for about a year before that because the arthritis in her knees was so painful.
Early this year, when a sore on her ankle spread and would not heal, doctors admitted her to St. Francis Regional Medical Center in Wichita for a skin graft. The graft failed and the infection spread. Six weeks later she left the hospital without her left leg.
Since then, she said, she's been planning for this trip to Kansas City to get the artificial leg.
Trautman, who travels to Parsons once a month, made a cast of the remaining part of Ockerman's leg Sept. 20. The cast was given to Greg Adams, a certified prosthetist and the technician for the program at the Med Center.
Adams then modified the cast, adding plaster to areas that would be pressure sensitive, such as the end of the bone, and removing plaster from weight-tolerant areas.
He made the socket for the prosthesis by molding plastic nylon and other materials over the modified cast. The materials used depend on the patient — her way of life, her weight, her activity level.
Trautman said that 10 to 20 materials could be used.
"The goal is that it should be big enough and strong enough and heavy enough to support the patient. But it has to be light and comfortable."
"It's kind of like making a sand-wich," he said. "You add materials depending on how heavy and how active the patient is.
He said that a below-the-knee prosthesis, such as Ockerman's, weighed 3 to 4 pounds. An above-the-knee prosthesis weighs 8 to 12 pounds
After the socket was finished and attached to an adjustable metal tube with a wooden foot on the end, Ockerman booked a room at the Med Center for a week of test runs and therapy.
Last Tuesday, Adams slipped the socket over the remaining part of Ockerman's left leg, and he and I were carefully, carefully helped her to her feet.
She was standing on two legs.
She was standing on two legs.
Behind her, she is bent forward and forthe siehadown quickly
Adams and Trautman measured and calculated.
we're going to have to do some finagling. " Adams said.
He took the prosthesis back to the workshop and ground out an area inside the socket.
"We want to get a channel so there will be pressure on either side of the bone, but not on the bone," he said.
A few minutes later, Adams returned with the altered leg and he and David Ockerman helped Alta Ockerman stand again.
Success.
Adams grinned and said, "You're sayin' just what we want to hear."
"It ites like a lot of pressure but no certain point," Alta Ockerman said. "It feels funny, like something down there but I can't move it."
Back to the workshop again to sew on the straps that would hold the prosthesis in place. In just a few minutes, Adams again was helping Ockerman to her feet, but this time he told her to step.
Gripping the parallel bars on each side, she took her first step and then her second.
She walked her way to the end of the 6-foot bars, turned and walked back.
As she collapsed in her waiting wheelchair, tears of pride, pain and conquest spilled down her cheeks.
'I walked.
Ockerman anxiously awaits the first fitting of her artificial leg as her husband, David, watches Adams prepare to fit the limb.